The Devils' Lair
by kevin1eight11
Summary: The story of Aiden and Shepherd 21-54 on their first strike together: The Devils' Lair.


"Ghost, did we get anything?!", the Awoken Titan called from the back of the ship.

"Just got something. Looks like Commander Zavala's got something big. He's assigned us as a part of a fireteam. Sounds like it's big."

"Oh, good." Aiden said, making his way back to the cockpit, "I can't wait to annoy more people."

"Please, at least _try_ to not annoy them so much the sabotage our ship. Again."

"No promises, pal."

Commander Zavala's voice crackles over the comms: "The Fallen will continue to claw at the walls of our City unless we strike them down. Beneath the ruins of the Cosmodrome, in the shadow of an old colony ship, we've located the House of Devils' Lair and the High Servitor feeding them their strength. We must destroy this machine god and send their souls screaming back to hell. Good luck, Guardians."

Aiden braced for that familiar lurch as his Ghost pulled the ship from the jump to Earth.

"Wow, I haven't seen _this_ in a while."

"We were literally at the Tower 24 hours ago, Aiden."

Aiden sighed. "Sarcasm will never be a strong point of yours, will it Ghost?"

His Ghost decided not to answer that, but instead concentrated on landing the ship next to the other ship already waiting at the staging area.

Aiden stood up and tucked his helmet under his arm. "Let's go meet our fireteam."

He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the sudden lighting change as his Ghost teleported him outside his ship. As he opened his eyes, he could make out the cloak of a Hunter. Deciding to break the ice first, Aiden spoke.

"Fireteams usually consist of three Guardians, right? Where's the other one?"

The other Guardian didn't even turn around to face him.

"Jump drive problems. He didn't keep up on the maintenance and it left him stranded in the orbit of Mars until someone can get him."

Aiden whistled. "Wow, that sucks. Well, I'm sure we can do this with just the two of us. I'm Aiden. You are?"

The Hunter finally turned around, revealing a female Exo with what looked like a bloodstain splattered around her right eye.

"Shepherd 21-54." She looked Aiden up and down, then nodded. "Good, you look like you can hold your own in a fight. I didn't want to play babysitter for this mission."

Aiden chuckled. "I guess that's one way to deliver a compliment. Let's go take out this Sepiks Prime guy."

The Guardians donned their helmets, summoned their Sparrows, and started off towards the old refinery that was marked on their HUD. As they closed in on the decrepit old building, they could hear the telltale sounds of battle.

"Fallen and Hive. Let's hope we can avoid the crossfire." Aiden's Ghost said.

"Aw, come on, Ghost", Aiden said, "You know subtlety isn't one of my strong suits."

Out of the corner of his eye, Aiden thought he saw the Hunter shake her head, though if she did, it was so slight that Aiden wasn't really sure if she had or not.

They made their way into the building, the sounds of battle getting louder and louder with each step, both Guardians keeping an eye on their motion trackers, wary of an ambush.

As they made it to what appeared to be the main room of the refinery, they were finally greeted with the two factions that were warring against each other.

Aiden double-checked his auto rifle and looked over at Shepherd 21-54 as she did the same with her hand cannon.

"You take the left, I'll take the right?" Aiden suggested.

"Works for me." The Exo said, and opened fire with her giant hand cannon, the recoil pushing the gun into near-vertical before she could control it again. The Awoken took that as the signal to go, and started mowing down enemies left and right, only pausing to reload and let his shields recharge if a few stray rounds found their mark.

At the opposite end of the room that they Guardians entered from, some Fallen technology came to life, barring the exit out of the back of the refinery.

Aiden's Ghost spoke up: "A shield mesh generator. Let me out onto it and I'll see what I can do." He let his Ghost out to start working on the generator. "Pretty complex. I'll need time."

Aiden turns to his Exo fireteam member and opens his mouth to say something when she aims her hand cannon at him… and fires. Instincts kicked in, and Aiden rolled away from the shot and ended his roll kneeling, with his auto rifle trained and at the ready. Before he could ask what the hell that was about, he noticed the still-twitching corpse of a Fallen Stealth Vandal that had snuck up behind him, missing its head.

Aiden was about to voice his thanks, when he noticed his motion tracker light up at the same time he heard that distinctive sound of more Stealth Vandals' stealth fields activate. Deciding to thank her later, Aiden went into battle mode, striking anything down that wasn't friendly.

Once the wave of enemies had been dealt with, Aiden let out an annoyed groan as he was interrupted before he could even say anything.

His Ghost sounded perplexed. "The Fallen are getting smarter. It's like the entire system is wired to a-"

An alarm blared loud enough for Aiden's helmet compensators to turn down the audio input.

"I'll work faster"

"That would be nice, thank you." Aiden said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

He looked over to Shepherd 21-54, confirming that yes, she had been shaking her head. Deciding to wait before saying something, since he was probably going to get interrupted anyway, he got into a stable firing position and waited for the inevitable wave of Fallen.

As he took out Fallen after Fallen, he noticed his only fireteam member get overwhelmed by Dregs brandishing knives. Aiden was about to call out, when the mass of Dregs suddenly disappeared into blue electricity as the Exo activated her Super ability, her tanto infused with pure Arc energy. She seemed to dance around the Fallen, cutting them down as if they were nothing but paper. As the last of the Fallen fell, almost cut in two by the Exo's Super, she seemed to flick the end of her blade, and her Super ended.

Aiden whistled as he patrolled the Fallen bodies, scrounging for ammo. "Remind me to not get on your bad side."

She just shrugged and said, "I prefer to not deal with friendly-fire reports. They're tedious."

Aiden's Ghost spoke up just then. "I'm close. But just so you know, there's more Fallen and Hive on the way."

As if on cue, the wails of Hive Thralls and the battle-cries of Fallen Captains filled the air. Aiden, always the one to never be one-upped, threw a flashbang grenade near a particularly clustered group of Hive, blinding them. He then jumped into the air and concentrated his Super energy into his gauntleted fists, slamming them into the ground just as it got too much to hold onto. Creating a shockwave of Arc energy in all directions around him, he disintegrated any and all Hive unlucky enough to be too close to where Aiden came down.

Switching to his shotgun, Aiden ran through the rest of the enemies in front of him, clearing a path with the force of his shots.

As he finished reloading, he noticed a Fallen Captain about to run into his fellow Guardian from behind. Sprinting as fast as his armor would let him, he shoulder-charged into the Captain, staggering it and finishing it off with a blast from his shotgun.

Shepherd 21-54 turned around to see the crumpled body of the Captain that almost dispatched her.

Aiden looked at her and shrugged, "I had to get even for that Stealth Vandal earlier."

Shepherd 21-54 nodded, "Thanks for that."

Aiden's Ghost moved back into Aiden's armor. "Barrier is down. We can move now."

"Nice work, Ghost"

The two Guardians moved through the back of the building, coming across a clearing crawling with Fallen, and just in time to see a Fallen dropship deploy a Fallen Devil Walker.

Then Exo's Ghost speaks up for the first time since they started the mission, "The Lair is up ahead, under that Colony Ship. Just on the other side of all those Devils." Her Ghost's voice sounded more like the Exo's voice, instead of Aiden's or his Ghost's.

Aiden looked over at Shepherd 21-54 and asked, "So, uh, got any ideas on how we're gonna take this thing out?"

Without hesitating, the Hunter pulled her sniper rifle from her back and fired 3 rounds. After that, the only thing Aiden could hear was the explosions as the Devil Walker went into its death throes.

"You really have to teach me that trick later," said Aiden, stunned at what he just witnessed.

After clearing out the stragglers in the clearing, the two Guardians made their way into the Devils' Lair.

They cleared their way through the Lair, wary at the lack of any opposition as they made their way towards Sepiks Prime. As they opened a pair of heavy metal doors, the telltale sounds of a Servitor feeding other Fallen reached the fireteam's ears. The two Guardians pushed their way through the doors to be greeted by a massive Servitor, at least 9 feet in diameter.

Making quick work of the Fallen strewn around, they got ready for the fight with the High Servitor, Sepiks Prime. Both Guardians readied their heavy weapons, Aiden with a heavy machine gun, and Shepherd 21-54 with a rocket launcher, and opened fire.

Before the combined firepower of the Guardians' heavy weapons could take Sepiks Prime down, a Fallen dropship deployed a wave of Fallen Dregs and Vandals, forcing the Guardians to turn their focus from the High Servitor to the newly arrived foes.

After a few panicked flashbangs and close-quarters melee fist-fights, the Guardians finally cleared the battle area of Fallen, leaving just the Servitor to fend for itself.

Re-equipping their heavy weapons, the Guardians resumed their pummeling of the High Servitor, finally destroying it in the process.

As Aiden's Ghost reported back to Commander Zavala that Sepiks Prime had been defeated, the two Guardians took stock of the carnage that was strewn around them.

"Talk about a light show, it looked really cool when it died." Aiden remarked.

"It was satisfying to watch, wasn't it?" Shepherd 21-54 agreed.

Commander Zavala's voice crackled through their helmet comms once again: "Sepiks Prime cast a great shadow over our City. With its destruction, the Fallen Devils will grow weaker. But we must stay vigilant. The Fallen are crafty. They'll find ways to survive. They always do. Good work, Guardians. You two seem to work well together."

Aiden shrugged and looked over at his Exo counterpart. "What do you say; want to stay in a fireteam together?"

Shepherd 21-54 nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that."


End file.
